Get Social

Candidate views on Medicaid expansion

Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal (Tupelo)

Jul. 21--Robert Foster, Republican

Supports a partial version of Medicaid expansion, with certain requirements imposed on recipients.

"Mississippi has a choice to make now going forward. We can either bury our heads in the sand and say we're not going to touch it, we're not going to reform Medicaid, and we are going to have hospitals go bankrupt and we're going to continue to have working class Mississippians without any affordable healthcare. There are 1 to 2 billion in money we are turning away from our state's healthcare system ... We need to have a conversation about doing what Indiana did, about what Arkansas did."

Tate Reeves, Republican

Opposes any form of Medicaid expansion.

"I believe very strongly that if Obamcare is the answer, then you are asking the wrong question ... We've got to work on improving the qualify of healthcare and the accessibility of healthcare throughout Mississippi. The way to do that is not through more government programs but through more opportunities for our people. More and better paying jobs and more and higher paying jobs."

Bill Waller, Republican

Supports a partial version of Medicaid expansion

"We've got a crisis in our state. We've got 31 rural hospitals on the danger list of closing ... you've got to have a hospital close by. No industry is going to locate if you don't have a good hospital ... I predict, we would actually increase the participation in our workforce and reduce those on Medicaid ... the payment for this would come through the participants, they have skin in the game ... there are plenty of metrics on this. It works."

Jim Hood, Democrat

Supports accepting the full version of Medicaid expansion offered by the Affordable Care Act.

"Our rural hospitals are closing ... in Houston, our emergency room closed ... that's just insane that we have worse emergency rural healthcare today than we did in the 1950s ... We could stop that. We should be taking a billion dollars a year from the federal government. That would create 10,000 jobs in our state."

Valesha Williams, Democrat

Supports accepting the full version of Medicaid expansion offered by the Affordable Care Act.

"The lives of Mississippians cannot continue to be used as a political ploy or a gimmick to make the opposing party fail. Mississippi tops the charts for poor health indicators, highest in cardiovascular deaths, highest in premature death, second-highest in obesity, highest in low birthweight and highest in infant mortality. Mississippi needs a leader who is committed to protecting life and the health of Mississippians."